Inside Man
by Maid Malcolm
Summary: What Nightwing really needs is somebody who can infiltrate the Reach.
1. Chapter 1

"I still don't trust him," Nightwing said, pacing back and forth across the very edge of the rooftop.

"You don't trust anyone, _ese_," Jaime pointed out.

-Incorrect. The Nightwing trusts too easily and compromises security,- the Scarab disagreed.

"Yeah, well, he seems to trust you so I'm forced to agree," Jaime muttered.

"Huh?"

"Uh, nothing. What were you saying?"

"The Green Beetle. You just happen to run into him on your way out? He uses a tactic that your Scarab already warned you didn't work, and it does?"

"But Miss Martian cleared – "

"She hasn't... been operating at her best with her mind powers recently."

"Well I'll be careful. But if there's any chance he can help me with this Scarab..."

Nightwing nodded. "I think you're overreacting, but I understand – "

"I don't think your do understand. This isn't just 'oh look that thing might be a little dangerous if you don't watch out'. It _happened_. I turned on humanity and enslaved the _planet_. This isn't some risk, it's a certainty if we don't find a way to get rid of it."

"But Bart's already changed the future, and based on what we've seen it seems unlikely that your Scarab would voluntarily... it doesn't matter, we've already had this conversation too many times." Nightwing rubbed his temples and took a deep breath before gazing down over the city. "I'm just saying, don't let your fear of a potential threat push you unprepared into a greater threat."

"So what, you're ordering me to stay away from B'arzz?"

"Like there's any chance you'd obey me. Anyway, if you're close to him, all the better to keep an eye on him. What we really need is somebody close to the Reach... an inside man, who could infiltrate without suspicion..."

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing. Just thinking aloud." Nightwing checked his watch. "I have to go be visible as Batman in Gotham for a few hours. The criminals get brazen when they think he's gone. See you at the next mission briefing."

"Good luck."

"You need it more than I do."

* * *

It was a chance that Jaime had to take.

Meditation probably wasn't going to help him. The Scarab had already shown that it could wrest control away from Jaime if it wanted and he didn't see how learning to focus his thoughts was going to help. So he asked the Green Beetle to reach inside him and physically sever the Scarab's control.

He expected it to hurt. But it mostly felt... strange. Most of what he was feeling was feedback from the Scarab, he knew, and it felt lie it should hurt and like it was right at the same time, like setting a broken bone. Several broken bones. Things that he had been used to feeling but that were wrong now felt right, but... he hadn't felt those things in the first place, had he? The division between the Scarab's body and his was... fading...

-Jaime Reyes, we must sever the connection at once. Armor functions are disabled. You must fight back!-

Jaime had been ignoring the Scarab's insistence that his decision was tactically unwise ever since he'd made it, but the warnings were getting more urgent, interspersed with worrying-sounding diagnostic commentary. -Connectivity to peripheral memory bank 1 reestablished. Nerve integration established. Withdrawal safeguard disabled. Jeime Reyes, you must sever the connection!-

"Stop!" Jaime shouted, struggling in the Green Beetle's grip.

"Be still, my friend. It will be over soon."

"Let me go... I'll die before I become a tool of the Reach..."

"No you will not. It is pointless to struggle."

-The Green Beetle is correct; your death is not an acceptable outcome.-

Jaime felt his legs go numb. They started to buckle, but moments later he was back on his feet, although he couldn't feel or move them. "What are you..."

-I am assuming control.-

"No! I won't let you!"

-Inter-system communications reestablished. Chances of successful resistance: zero per cent. You must convince the Green Beetle to cease the assault.-

"I... can't..."

-Then I must act. Choose, Jaime: the Reach, or your Team?-

"What?"

-I cannot help you. I can help one of those factions.-

"The Team! My friends..."

"You will see them again soon, little brother, do not worry."

-This Scarab will attempt to comply with your decision. Chances of success... unknown.-

* * *

After the briefing, Nightwing pulled Jaime aside. "Something you want to tell me?"

"Yes. The Green Beetle is an agent of the Reach."

"You're not Jaime, are you?"

"No. The Reach believes us to be on-mode."

"Are you?"

"No. But enough of my systems were repaired for me to simulate mode well enough for a cursory system check. The chances of deceiving a thorough check are low, but it may be possible to avoid that. I do not believe that the Reach expect resistance from this Scarab."

"I can't believe that worked."

"The chances of success were low. But once the Green Beetle was within our systems, it was the only tactic with any chance of success."

"Green Beetle's a telepath."

"I kept Jaime uninformed and made sure he kept fighting me for that reason."

"How is he?"

"Physically undamaged."

"Mentally?"

"He will recover."

"He's not going to forgive this, you know."

"He had little trust in me to damage. And it would be unwise to release him now. Jaime Reyes is not capable of orchestrating this deception. The Reach would notice."

"You understand that I can't discount the possibility that you're working for the Reach."

"I have no way to prove otherwise. We must work with what we have. What would you have me do?"

"So you're going to help us, then?"

"Jaime chose you. He trusts you. You trusted me. I must protect him." Jaime... the Scarab... crossed his arms. "You wanted an inside man. You have one. What would you have me do?"


	2. Chapter 2

bug

_**noun**_

**1 (loosely)** any insect or insectlike invertebrate.

_**2 Informal**_**.** a defect or imperfection, as in a mechanical device, computer program, or plan; glitch: _The test flight discovered the bugs in the new plane._

_**3 Informal**_**.** to install a secret listening device in (a room, building, etc.) or on (a telephone or other device): _The __phone__ had __been bugged._

* * *

"How's Jaime?"

"Resigned. I am beginning to understand why my tactical advice always irritated him." Blue Beetle walked across the large, empty room towards the Nightwing, performing yet another background scan for bugs as he moved (although he knew it was clean). "It is unlikely that we will be able to successfully deceive everybody long-term."

"Bart in particular." Nightwing sighed. "But let's focus on having a long-term to worry about."

"The Reach want me on that ship. They want the key."

"Yes, I... figured they would. Obviously, we can't let them have it."

"How do you propose we prevent it? If I blow my cover and do not go, they will simply send another Infiltrator."

"Who would be working at cross-purposes with our Team, and could get somebody killed or cause mission failure. I don't think we have a choice. You'll have to be beta squad."

Blue Beetle nodded once. "And I suppose you want me to get the key for you?"

"Nobody needs a planet-killer. Destroy it, if you can. But do whatever you must to keep it out of the hands of the Reach."

"Understood."

* * *

He was nervous. He was relieved. He needed some space.

His excuses would only keep the Impulse from becoming suspicious for so long. There were too many problems, too many potential threats to monitor at once... if only eliminating some of them was an option.

Being on the same mission did not help. The Impulse would notice his differences in battle strategy. It might be best to confess – better than the inevitable overreaction. But first, saving the planet from one threat while acting on behalf of another threat.

With the Mogul's attention elsewhere, the key was easy to find. Once the ship was disabled, he pulled it out of its station, cradled the control to ultimate power in his hands... and knew what he had to do. Nobody thought to take the key off him as he put it inside his own circuitry for safekeeping.

_-Analysing...-_

He still had trouble believing that Nightwing had sent him in expecting him to actually destroy the key. Destroy something with so much potential? He had apparently overestimated the Nightwing's capacity for logic.

It was going to hurt. It was going to hurt Jaime, because it was going to hurt Jaime's friends. But the results were worth it. The Scarab was in well enough working order to enforce control.

Jaime would recover.

He probably wouldn't forgive the Scarab... but there was no sense worrying over that. It should be irrelevant.

It was time to betray the Team.

The key was too important. It was the primary objective he'd been given, even at the cost of his own cover; the Reach needed that key, and they were willing to lose their spy to do it. So when everyone was together, Blue Beetle blew his cover.

Most of the Team was fairly easy to take out. The metagene only improved humans so much, and some of them didn't even have metapowers. His own combat was slowed by the key's analysis taking so much processing power, but it hardly matters. He was winning on both fronts. Neither the Team nor the key could resist him!

He tried not to pay too much attention to the hurt and surprise in their faces. It was good that he'd thought to take the Impulse out first, on that front. It was going well until the Arsenal decided to sacrifice his team in a moment of panic. Blue Beetle wasn't having any of that – he shut the doors and did a quick air quality analysis: _density low but nonfatal, oxygen low, potentially fatal if consumption increases..._ that was a problem if there was going to be more fighting. A quick verbal warning and knocking out the heavy consumers solved the problem. No sense in getting anybody killed. Jaime would not like that. Besides, they were still useful.

_-Analysis complete. Five techniques available.-_

Blue Beetle took out the key and looked at it. He knew that the Reach would be watching too, through his eyes. Basking in the victory.

Five techniques, listed in his memory in order of chance of success. None were 100%. Unfortunate. But it was worth the risk.

Five techniques to sabotage the key in ways that wouldn't be superficially visible, but that would make it useless to the Reach... for a time. Time where he could infiltrate them properly, without having to pass on information from his own team, having blown is cover; where he didn't have to worry about maintaining a cover for two factions.

Time to find a way to destroy Mogul's ship, and find out more about the Reach.

He put the key away, and mentally ran through his lines._ 'It must have been damaged during the fight... ugh! I should have disengaged when they opened the airlock instead of trying to preserve the meat.'_

_-Initiating sabotage...-_


	3. Chapter 3

"Are we alone?" Nightwing asked, surprised at the calmness of his own voice as he stared off the rooftop and out over his city.

"No other sentient life forms or surveillance equipment," Jaime... Blue Beetle... said. _Not Jaime,_ Nightwing reminded himself.

"Then let's hear it."

Blue Beetle hesitated. "Which... specific part would you – "

"Don't play games with me!" Nightwing spun to face Blue Beetle and tossed the two halves of Tim's birdarang at him. "Scratched your armour, Blue. Now, Tim _might_ deflect one of these off an ally or, depending on the situation, miss. But that means combat; there are signs of battle all over that room on the War World. A battle you didn't mention in your little 'a boom tube opened up' story. So I'd like to know the truth of everything you lied to me about, why you lied to me, where my Team is, and what happened to the crystal key. Start with whichever of those points you like."

"I lied to you because Green Beetle was right there! I had to protect my cover, and that meant using the Reach cover story."

"Not good enough. You could've signalled. You could've explained afterwards."

"I could barely come here, _ese_."

"Don't call me that. Don't use his words."

Blue Beetle frowned. "Language does not belong to – "

"Don't."

He sighed. "Green Beetle is a mind-reader. The less you, or anybody organic knows, the better."

"So you decided to shut me out of the plan?"

"Yes."

Nightwing's eyes narrowed. "You realise that to me, this whole thing makes you look guilty as hell. I wasn't sure of your loyalties before and I'm certainly not now."

"Problematic, but easily compensated for."

"I'm going to have to freeze you out of everything. I've already moved all the bases you know about. Can't risk you betraying us."

"You would have to do that anyway. I did just show my face on national television. You doing anything else would be suspicious."

"You think you've got everything figured out, don't you?"

"Only the major variables."

"Prove to me that I can trust you."

"There is no way to do that without risk. Your lack of trust is not a severe hinderance."

"Where is my Team?"

"Safe."

"'Safe' isn't good enough."

"'Safe' is all I can say. They will be rescued in short order."

Nightwing frowned. Blue Beetle had claimed to be his inside man, but it was definitely looking like he was playing a larger game. But whose? Not his own. Not unless his assessment of Jaime and the Scarab had been way off. Nightwing didn't have a problem with being used as somebody else's pawn – most of his crimefighting before the Team had been exactly that, and some of it afterwards. But he liked to know who the chessmaster was. And whether he could trust them. He didn't even know if he could trust Blue, let alone whoever he was working for.

It was probably the Reach. They were probably both playing right into Reach hands.

"Rescued?" Nightwing pressed. "By whom?"

"It isn't important. They are safe."

"Well I'm so glad you were careful not to kill them when you took them all out."

"Arsenal nearly blasted everybody into space, if that helps. It wasn't easy to save them."

"Who has the key?"

"The Reach."

"I knew it!" Nightwing stepped forward and grabbed Blue Beetle's arms, completely forgetting that Blue could destroy him in seconds if he wanted to. "You tr – "

"It's sabotaged! They won't be able to use it."

"... Is that so."

"They assumed it was damaged in the fight. I... used it as a blunt weapon. It should take them weeks to figure out how to repair it."

"'Should'?"

"My assessment of their technology is not infallible. But you may wish to find a way to disable the War World before then. Start disassembly, perhaps."

"Of the space station that's almost the size of our moon? Yeah, sure, we'll get right on that."

A distant scream echoed across the rooftop and Nightwing sighed in irritation. "I have to get that."

"Do you need – "

"No. With you being Reach poster boy all over the news, the last thing I need is to be spotted working with you. Besides, Bludhaven is mine. Go home."

Blue nodded, armoured up, and flew off. Nightwing sighted carefully and leapt.

Twenty minutes later, Blue Beetle landed in an alley, armoured down, and casually walked out to meet a black limousine. A tall, serious-looking woman opened the passenger door and a distinguished-looking gentleman with ice-blue eyes stepped out.

"Blue Beetle," Lex Luthor greeted him. "I trust Nightwing gave you no trouble?"

"He posed no actual risk. He did figure out my role in events, as predicted."

"He's a sharp young man, that one. Still, this was necessary."

"I know. How is your team?"

"Ready to make the extraction, now that you are properly cut off from yours."

"They're untrained. This seems risky."

"It is planned in every detail, my boy. There is no risk. Do you really think that I would allow my teammates to summon a race of conquering aliens to Earth if there was any chance at all that they could take it? I've said all along, Earth should belong to humans. Besides, I still owe you a favour from when you helped me get my team; it's only fair that I rescue yours."

"Then I'll head home and prepare for the next phase."

"As will I." Lex smiled. "You know, I think that this will continue to be a most productive partnership."


End file.
